Young Women+ Achievement, or YW+A, is an identity and culturally responsive mentoring program that works with local high school students of color of all gender identities in overcoming systemic barriers to success and bridging opportunity gaps.
The program encourages students to reach their academic and personal goals while building community and providing a sense of belonging for student populations who, at times, may have felt isolated.
The Young Women+ Achievement (YW+A) program expands the Latinx Achievement Success (LAS) program to continue to support Latinx and Hispanic high school students while ensuring an inclusive program for young women of color as well as LGBTQ+ youth. The use of the word "women" is often a marker to queer youth that a space is potentially unwelcoming due to cisgender and heteronormative societal standards. By adding the “+” to “women” and using “women+”, we are offering a welcoming space for youth questioning their gender identity, non-binary and non-gender conforming students who present femme, and transwomen.
YW+A Advocates are college-age, cultural- and identity-responsive mentors and role models for the students in YW+A, and, through their own lived experience, can help their students learn to navigate some of the challenges and systemic barriers they may face as they pursue their academic and personal dreams.
Interested in joining or partnering? Email Heidi Mallon, Manager of Community Engagement and Equity here.
YWCA Boulder County’s mission to empower women, and our understanding of gender identity has grown significantly since the organization was founded over 100 years ago. YW+A is a commitment to provide an inclusive, cultural- and identity-responsive forum for high school youth to connect at their own high school and across Boulder County high schools.
YW+A meetings and activities will include topics such as:
Time management
Identity-affirming activities
Mental health
College Tours
College Financial Aid (FAFSA)
Financial Literacy
Healthy Relationships
Field Trips and bonding activities like campfires and corn mazes, visiting local museums and cultural centers, ice skating, volunteer opportunities and more
